


but you don't really care for music, do you?

by nosecoffee



Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Angst, Birth, Car Accident, Christmas, F/F, F/M, Fluff, Home Haircuts, Hospitals, Hurt/Comfort, Inflatable pools, Late-Night Shenanigins, Lots of Angst, M/M, Moving Out, Night Terrors, Pianos, blood mention, breaking up, mention of injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-04
Updated: 2016-12-04
Packaged: 2018-09-06 11:05:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8748091
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nosecoffee/pseuds/nosecoffee
Summary: Eight stories from the same night.Eight stories with different endings.Eight stories about Christmas, inspired by the song "Hallelujah".





	

**Author's Note:**

> Title from "Hallelujah"
> 
> Please enjoy

Philip placed his fingers carefully on the ivory keys. The house was quiet - quiet as it'd always been in the early hours of the morning, only the creak of the house to be heard.

He pressed down on a note - the sweet C sharp ringing through the room.

The piano was the only thing mom had brought from her family's house, and Philip loved it. An old baby grand, dark brown.

He inhaled through his nose as he played some mindless tune. It was like he was trying to find some hidden chord, trapped in the keys, in his fingers, in his mind - composing a vague melody into the air.

Philip closed his eyes, letting the cold of the room cover and embrace him.

  
Soft footsteps broke his cocoon of fourths and fifths, the world of the secret note.

He turned his head, eyes opening, but continued to play.

Theodosia watched from the doorway, leaning softly against the jamb.

"You'll wake the kids." She whispered, a tender smile gracing her features.

"I couldn't sleep," he replied, pressing his bare foot down on one of the peddles.

Theodosia sighed, moving into the room. The floorboards squeaked under her feet as she moved. She took one of his hands from the piano, pressing a soft kiss to his palm.

"Five more minutes, okay?"

Philip nodded.

She trailed her hand up his arm and squeezed his shoulder. "My baffled, poetic king."

-

Eliza woke with a start, and at first, knowing for sure that she was awake, she thought she'd gone blind.

Of course, reaching up to touch her eyes, she found two solo cups, bound together with duct tape, over her eyes like glasses.

After discarding them to the grass, Eliza stood up from her plastic beach chair in the back yard of some rich kid from school, she looked around, taking in her surroundings.

There were cups and streamers and bottles littered over the lawn - and some clothes, she noted - and she stepped around some unconscious forms.

The inflatable pool on the roof caught her eye, along with the beautiful girl in the red sundress floating in it.

The moonlight hit the girls face just right and Eliza was sure she was drunk because if this was what love felt like, she really hoped the girl got down okay.

She took out her phone and dialled Angelica's number, giving her a brief explanation and an address and hung up.

Eliza climbed onto the roof and shook the girl in red awake.

"Hm?" Asked the girl.

"I'm Eliza. Need a ride home?"

"I'm Maria and I'd love one."

~

"I'm pretty sure this isn't how hairdressers do it." John said. His voice was muffled against Lafayette's t-shirt.

"Shush, and let me work." He replied.

Snip. Another lock fell to the floor, a victim to Lafayette's rabid obsession.

John wanted to surge up and cut him off and make him drop those stupid scissors, but he can't.

Because Laf tied his wrists to the arms of the chair.

Lafayette shifted, his knees poking into John's thighs - snip, snip - and John licked his lips.

Lafayette had practically broken John over his knee - falling in love with him was fast and terrifying and John didn't care.

Lafayette tied him to the chair and sat back, to look at his handy work - poked his tongue out of the corner of his mouth, eyes narrowing.

He leaned forward - snip - and then back again.

Lafayette dropped the scissors and they clattered against the tiles. "There," he said, running his hands through the shorter curls. "Finished."

"Can I get up now?" John asked.

Lafayette grinned. "No way," and surged to kiss him.

~

Aaron breathes heavily into his palms. There's festive music playing on the tv in the corner, and he digs his elbows into his knees.

He can hear her - if he concentrates enough - can hear her through the door.

Hear her groans and shrieks and prayers, and he wishes he could be beside her.

But he arrived too late and they wouldn't let him in and he needs to be there, because what if - maybe - oh god - he's so scared that he'll lose her -

Theodosia suddenly goes silent, on the other side of the door, and Aaron stands, knowing his face is tear stained, praying to the god that never seemed to listen before that she should have the right to see her child grow.

The door opens and the doctor steps through - Aaron freezes at the sight of the blood on his scrubs - but his panic quickly subsides at the smile on his face.

"Come and meet your daughter," he says, and Aaron rushes past him because he needed to be there.

But Theodosia is fine, she's okay, she's alive. And is holding a swaddled child in her arms. She gestures for Aaron to stand beside her and Aaron breathes a silent thanks, a silent 'hallelujah' to the sky, and holds his wife.

~

Hercules closes the door. The room was empty anyway.

He licks his lips and pulls his beanie onto his head. This is it. No turning back now.

Hercules glances into every room before closing the door. Bathroom? Empty. Master bedroom? Empty. Study? Empty.

He reaches the front hall and sees his suitcase standing alone on the soft grey carpet.

Hercules doesn't know why it has to be this hard. He'd lived alone before this. Maybe it's because it's this.

Maybe he just doesn't want to cry into John's couch.

Maybe he still doesn't understand why it ended.

Nevertheless, he picks up the suitcase - Avengers comic pattern - and pulls his keys out.

'You know I've seen this house before, right?' He remembers saying. 'Ive seen it, it's not right.'

'Maybe you haven't seen it from the right angle yet.' Was the response, along with a tug to his hand and a laugh in his throat.

The house was cold and empty and broken now. Like cracked, aged marble.

Hercules locked the door and walked from the porch to his car.

As he pulled away, he pushed the memories to the back of his mind.

It wouldn't do to dwell.

~

"Peggy," Angelica rasps, as blood drips into her eye and momentarily blinds her. "Oh god, Peggy!"

Peggy's eyes are closed, and there is a gash on her forehead, and her airbag is still inflated against her chest.

Angelica can hear people yelling, but it's all white noise. Angelica feels more blood drip from her cheek to her eye and forehead, seeping into her hair.

The car is on it's roof, she knows that. The car is upside down, and the backseat on Angelica's side is crushed, and her arm is screaming in pain and Peggy doesn't look like she's breathing.

Angelica couldn't forgive herself if Peggy died.

"Please wake up, please." Peggy's eyelids flutter at the words and Angelica sobs in relief. The voices are getting louder.

"Are you okay?" Peggy whispers.

"Yeah I'm good, I'm-" she winces. "I think my arm is broken. What about you?"

Peggy smiles, but there's pain in her eyes. "I think I broke a rib or something. Can't wait to get out of this car."

Angelica laughs, tears trailing down her skin, and reaches across the empty air of the crushed car to hold Peggy's hand.

Every breath they drew was a miracle.

~

Thomas wasn't sure if there was a god.

But if there was, he wasn't being fair.

Thomas wanted to be happy.

But the only happiness he'd encountered came with a price, like the fine print in a contract for his soul.

If there was love that could teach Thomas something, he didn't like the lesson.

If the lesson was 'hit and run before you get hurt' he didn't want to play the game. He didn't want to give a reason why he was sitting out either.

He wondered if playing for the other side would help at all

He wondered if he was doing something wrong.

Otherwise, why would James leave him?

Thomas let his head bang into the wall behind him and watched lights turn off and on in the skyscrapers that surrounded him.

The world was beautiful, if he looked at it from one specific angle, but he wasn't sure where it was. He was willing to look, but James had been his motivation before, and without him what motivation was there?

Thomas checked his phone - 11:59. Only one more minute.

He smiled to himself.

The busiest, and most awaited night of the year, and he could watch it unfold from the roof of his apartment building.

His phone vibrated - 12:00 - and he pulled his knees up to his chest.

"Merry Christmas."

~

Alex held James tight by the waist.

The nightmares came and went, but the pain was lingering.

James understood.

James understood better than anyone could.

He knew what Alex meant when he talked about before.

James was his rock. Alex couldn't ask for more.

It was on nights like these, when the memories were strong and the nightmares were almost real, that Alex needed him most. Knew that James needed him too.

The sheets weren't warm enough, but James more than made up for it.

Sometimes, Alex imagined he could still hear the people in the hurricane, in the moment just before the eye passed, when not even a crash of lightning made a noise. In that moment he thought he was going to die, and yet, here he was, years later.

And his life was good, his life was heavy, but good.

He needed James when he was weak, and James needed him on the nights when he missed everything he'd left behind.

Alex glanced at the alarm clock and felt relieved that he'd wasted an hour. An hour less that he had to lie still.

"Alex?" James mumbled.

"Hm?"

"Turn over."

Alex did, and felt James wrap his arms around him.

Christmas was here, and James was here. What more could he ask for?

  
Fin.

**Author's Note:**

> That was pretty angsty. Sorry guys, I get heavy when I'm sick. Anyway, please leave a comment and a kudos and track me down on Tumblr @nose-coffee. Thank you, I hope you enjoyed!


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